Surviving In The Deadzone
by WalkerSniper
Summary: A City called Union has been sealed off from the world and has been taken over by the Undead but the infection has spred beyond Union. Dispite the chances many people have survived but the Walls on the city borders have kept them in.
1. Day 1

**Surviving in the Deadzone Day 1**

In the East of America they was a City called "Union" while not the best city it had it's merits. Now the city is dead infested with decaying, walking, corpses that roam the streets, following the bombing of the city, the place is hell. Because of the undead roaming the city and the way out closed off by a huge wall it is commonly referred to as the "Deadzone" but among the Undead hordes there's survivors some have lost everything along with themselves, some struggle to survive while others thrive.

Among the Necropolis in the city's northern area a section called "Riverside north" there's someone by the name Daniel Thompson. A man in his late 20s, his hair and beard clearly show signs of being untouched for weeks both of medium size, he wears a old brown coat with a dirty white shirt underneath along with blue torn trousers with ruined shoes.

After traveling so long Daniel decided to take rest inside a compound, a place both filled and surrounded with piles of Junk. Despite the place being doorless with a entrance east, north and west, meaning anyone could just walk inside, Daniel decided to stay knowing the high risk being fed up running from what he refers to as "Walkers" and "Runners" he couldn't care even if he tried.

After searching the area to check it's secure, he collapsed from exhaustion, the solid ground offered nothing but discomfort. Daniel wanted at least a good sleep so he looked around and found some clothing and Wood, and despite being extremely tired he still tried building a bed. The bed wasn't really good by any means but it was enough to satisfy him.

Daniel slept for an hour, until he was awaken by a man looking in his early 20s. The man urged him to "GET THE HELL UP!" Daniel was confused at first but once the sound of morning came he spriting to south entrance, outside he saw 3 walkers making their way. Despite the life threatening danger Daniel was anger at the man for breaking his moment of peace and safety he snapped at him calling him a "BLOODY MORON!" for bringing them here in first place once he finished yelling, the man confused apologized for waking him and reminded him that "3 walking cannibal corpses" were slowly making their way towards them. However that 3 quickly became 8 Daniel's uncalled for yelling attracted more walkers towards them, the man insisted they were the actual problem and Daniel's "good night sleep can wait" Daniel sighed and then agreed. The man reached into his backpack and grabbed a lead pipe. the only weapon Daniel had was a pocket knife which made the man look at him both concerned and amused at Daniel's weapon of choice.

3 walkers got close one ahead of the others, Daniel dealt with the single one by forcing his pocket knife into it's head while he was forcing the knife out of the walker's skull, the man had managed to grab and force one onto ground he then proceeded to bash the other one's head in before finishing other off. The 5 that followed were the next priority the two men decide to split the group apart making them easier to deal with, 3 followed the man while the other 2 followed Daniel. Daniel quickly stabbed one in eye, but it didn't destroy brain, while the other closed him Daniel took knife out of it's eye, kicked it away forcing it to ground allowing him to deal with other one he forced his knife into it head but lost his grip of it while it fell, he then noticed the other was still on floor so he stamped on it's head until it's skull gaveway. Meanwhile the man kicked one away then shove away another then proceed to bash the lone one's head in, then he whacked another upside chin buying time to deal with the other, once done he finish the last on off all while smiling in process, which disturbed Daniel. One more walker turned up the man pointed it out with his pipe "looks like we've a latecom..." Daniel fed up just grabbed the man's pipe and beat it to death and headed back inside compound.

The man followed and introduced himself as John and started apologizing to him for the rather, as he called it "murderous wake up call" he then asked if he could sleep inside with him Daniel not really bothered just stared blankly and waved his hands forward and proceed to his bed and before he went to sleep, briefly told John how he made his before collapsing to sleep.


	2. Day 2

**Surviving in the Deadzone day 2**

The day started with Daniel being awakened by John asking him if he was "enjoying the pavement" to Daniel's surprise he hadn't even got in bed and slept on the concrete the whole time. John asked with a smile Daniel "you going to scream at me again?" Daniel chuckled and told him "I won't" and apologized for losing it yesterday. John was fine with it saying "it's okay, 300,000 people dieing would drive anyone nuts eventually" Daniel paused for a moment wishing that was the reason he snapped the other day, he didn't deny it he told John "that wasn't why I became a lunatic" John wasn't surprised but he didn't explain why. John asked Daniel if they could stick together John explained "I've been alone for so Long that quite frankly, even if you're a psychopath I'll stick around, simply for the company" Daniel didn't say but he felt the same way and said he could.

While John got his backpack Daniel managed to get a good look at him he looked early 20s, had an average build, had surprisingly short hair and short beard but subtle small scars showed a previous attempt at shaving, he wore a shirt covered with a mix of colours red, black etc. that it was impossible to know it's original colour he had jeans clearly wore out and had trainers that looked recent, likey found by him.

John emptied his backpack of all the food and water inside and for both of them it was only enough for half a day John asked Daniel where his food and water was, Daniel explained that before they meet yesterday Daniel was being chased and that his backpack was slowing him down and in desperation he threw it away John asked if his situation was "that bad?", Daniel nodded. John said "well then, unless you enjoy slow painful starvation we'll need to raid someplace and that I'd like my pipe back, thank you" Daniel realized he still had it and gave it back, he then realized that he left the Pocket Knife inside the Walker's head, however when attempting to remove it from the walker's skull it snapped, John criticized Daniel for attempting to get it "You were going back for the pocket knife? There's tons of crap inside that'll be better than that". Daniel realized that was obvious and searched the junk piles and managed to find a rusty tire Iron, John said in response to finding Daniel finding it said "see already you've found something better than goddamn pocket knife". Daniel getting increasingly annoyed over John basically saying it was useless despite the fact it helped the other day bluntly told John to "drop it" John replied "just trying to add some humor" Daniel simply replied "whatever" the two started to plan where they'd go.

Because Food and water were the priority they both agreed that the convenience store down the road was the best choice. John told Daniel that he was there the other day scavenging and that they were 10 of them there and he killed 2 of them before realizing the other 8 hence why he was chased by them the other day that meant at best the ones they dealt with that night were those 8 and none were there. They leave the compound and headed toward the store.

The streets were quite, randomly place cars and corpses littered the streets while the smell was intense those who survived this long have gotten somewhat use to it.

During the short walk for the sake of conversation John asked what Daniel did for a living before "everything went to hell". Daniel told him how he use to be a TV reporter and at first believed that he'd be spreading truth to the public which called "pretty naive" Daniel agree and how he now believes he was "merely adding fuel for someone's agenda" Daniel changed the subject and told him how he was responsible with giving advice to the public, John noted that he didn't recognize Daniel at all, Daniel told him that he was new to the job (to be exact 6 months in) and the woman who was supposed to do so was missing, presumably killed and in haste they quickly gave him the role. John joked that "So the one time you report something important, it's the end of the world" Daniel laughed and replied "yep" he also explain he took the job because he has an "Impressive memory" and that it landed him in trouble multiple times with his mother whenever he pointed out her contradictions or brought up stuff she taught him whenever she did the opposite John laughed and said "typical parents huh? tell you, and others not to swear around you, yet they swear all the time" "'don't swear around my kid' 1 minute later 'will shut the £$%& up I'm talking" Daniel replied "sounds about right". Suddenly Daniel burst into laughter John was nervous at first until Daniel said "here we are in 'hell on earth' and we're having a casual conversation" John simply smiled and told him to "get use to it, you're with me now" he smiled back, then they noticed they had just walked past the store.

They looked inside and couldn't see any walkers or runners so they proceed inside. John said "Seems I was right but look carefully, we didn't bump into one along the way so chances are 1 is definitely here I doubt just 10 were here". The two split up they thought due to store's small size they could easily help each other. Daniel went left while John went right, once Daniel got to left side he immediately spotted two walkers, he called out to inform John but during that brief moment a runner jumped out and surprised him Daniel seeing john in danger he changed, he became angry and immediately attacked the two walkers he smacked one across face knocking it into shelf next to it, he then grabbed and threw the other forwards, before one next to shelf got up he repeatedly kicked it's face breaking it's jaw, once it stopped moving he paused to determine whether it was dead or not before he could he heard the other getting back up, he grabbed it's neck and shirt, told it to "piss off" and threw it to same shelf knocking it down to ground he then bashed it's skull. Meanwhile John was having trouble with the runner the runner quickly recovered from whatever blow he gave it he managed to knock it into counter but it quickly got back to trying to get him during that moment Daniel managed to shove the tire iron into it's neck and force it over counter while he gathered his breath John grabbed the cash register and dropped it on the runner's head. John remarked that the other day they fought 8 together yet the fight with the 3 in store got "much messer".

Because John had the Backpack Daniel said he should gather food and water and quickly as the noise made could have attracted more. While John gathered supplies Daniel searched around, not willing to risk another surprise. Once he got to back he found one but it was like the others it appeared to be someone else who was surviving who had turned for some times. It's legs were mostly eaten up to point it's bones were mostly exposed and some of it's organs were exposed including it's stomach, it's face was missing some of it's flesh, it's lower right jaw was exposed. Despite the Fact Daniel hated them in contrast to his behaviour to the other 3 he couldn't help but feel sympathy for it, it tried to bite him however it couldn't pull itself to him only grab his leg. John called "Anything back there? I'm done here" Daniel replied "one moment" Daniel noticed it's backpack and saw a name on it 'Ben' he assume that was the walker and said "Sorry Ben" before putting it out of it's misery. He checked the backpack and found 3 cans, a bottled water and kitchen knife, he also noticed a gun in it's somewhat skeleton hand it was a old Lawson, which looked to barely work. he grabbed the backpack and told John he found it and they headed back.

Daniel concerned over his past behaviour asked John what he thought of him. John puzzled by question answered "well … other than your a maniac who'll go berserk if I interrupt his beauty sleep? you're okay" Daniel chuckled and asked "anything else?" "well you handle yourself better than I thought and … wait why are you asking anyway?" Daniel avoided the question said "nothing, it doesn't really matter anyway" while they walked back John said "Oh and you'll need to brush up your sense of humor as well if you're going to be around me" Daniel laughed and said "well I'll try"

Once the two returned they split the food and water between them and tried to improve their makeshift beds with little success john then asked What do you think, once everything is cleared up, the media will say about it" Daniel replied "I don't know" he later continued "they could make anything up 'a terrorist group did it, nature, god's wrath, who knows". Daniels mind started to wonder he thought to himself 'anyone charismatic enough could make up whatever story they want' he immediately looked in Ben's backpack grabbed a pen and notebook inside and started writing John curious asked what he was doing asked Daniel explained "The media won't truly know what happened right? So If write this and bring it to public (or the public find it) they'll known what the facts are. Hell maybe the military or HERC had something to do with it and we could document the facts or have evidence to prove their innocence and that they simply tried to help, or this could be just anyone world/national disaster in history. the walkers, runners they could be the biggest test of our humanity who knows?" John looked at Daniel puzzled which Danial dismissed as him not understanding the importance of history. While John went to sleep Daniel continued writing like it was compulsive and important he did it he wrote most of the night.


	3. Day 3

**Surviving in the deadzone day 3**

The day started as normal, (as normal as the apocalypse can be). Both John and daniel stuck around the compound until, John said "you know I think this Compound could work as a permanent hideout", At first Daniel thought he was joking, but he quickly realized he was infact serious. Daniel told John he believed it was a bad idea as they "have no doors, there's junk everywhere, if we're attacked by bandits we'll be target practice, anything above small arms will pierce right through these walls and a lookout won't do much good seeing how there's three ways in and theres only two of us". John counted Daniel's argument with "Bandits? they'd have no reason to attack us, right now this place isn't exactly appealing to look at, and this place is dead in more ways than 1 so if they were around, they'd be already here and lookouts, I pretty sure we could easily take shifts and these zombies wander aimlessly so chances of a large herd finding us are slim to point it doesn't matter" Daniel replied "there's still a chance, I only stayed here yesterday and day before because I was so fed up that I didn't care about the risks and this place is quieter than it usually is, bandits may not know of this place it could be convenient none are here or they don't have interest in this place, but that could change at any moment and do you really think this place was always this quiet? Did you see how is was before ..." John interrupted him "YES I did! I wasn't blind, then suddenly gain eyesight, what, does the apocalypse cure blindness now?" in frustration Daniel told John he's "Not. Staying. Here." John in frustration walked off.

Once Daniel had calmed down he went John and said "we can't go on like this" John replied "I know, look I understand that almost every choice we make could end up saving/killing us. I could do something like you did yesterday get your attention and then one of them come from nowhere and instead of barely avoiding it, half your neck is now in it's stomach. But this place compared to places like Trenton this is brilliant and this compound isn't eye catching so it's hardly likely people will look for it, trust me this place is better than meet the eye" After making his belief clear and surprising Daniel with his argument Daniel asked "You certain this is a good idea?" John paused for a moment "No, not really, I think it's better than most options however." Daniel thought for a moment about what John said, he thought back to the convenience store of how if he hadn't called out to john he would have seen the runner coming and not be caught of guard, he also thought about Ben and how his decision cost his and that the walkers inside likely followed him inside and that neither of them decided to be a lookout as they could've been followed and they wouldn't have noticed and the noise during fight didn't help. After thinking about Daniel told John "Okay, I know you believe this is certainly a better plan than others and I sure can't think of any 'good' ones, so listen if we stay here for 5 more days, that's including today and we don't encounter a horde of any kind then we'll stay, deal?" John replied "it's a deal" so in the end Daniel reluctantly (and partly out of desperation) stayed with John.

To break the serious tone John brought up part of Daniel's diary "I enjoyed the violence 'too much'?" completely caught off guard by his question Daniel quickly said "what?" John explained the question "In your diary you said I was having too much fun right? well the person who wrote that diary goes into some gruesome detail about how he kills those 'walkers' like driving that pocketknife into it's eye, doesn't he and by the way they're still zombies". Daniel first brought that "it's my diary" which John replied with "you never said don't read it" Daniel grudgingly sighed and explained that he doesn't want to sugarcoat what happens and how he strongly believes that people need to know what happens/ed. John then cheekily asks "so you're going to describe how you moved those rotting corpses then? I mean they're stinking up the place right how." Daniel told him he wouldn't which was a lie.

With nothing distracting them and the source of the agonizing smell up close Daniel struggled to breath along with John. John said "alright this isn't going to work, hold on" John went back inside compound and torn pieces of clothing he found so they both could cover their noses while disposing of the corpses. They was a large crater to the south-east which they dumped the bodies inside Daniel commented that "well the bombings were at least some use I guess, seeing how the best they did was nearly kill us". To lighten the tone John poorly attempted being a drill sergeant, "put your back into it you worthless maggot" Daniel stopped, signed and move on while listening to his attempts at humor and simultaneously trying not to hear it .

Once they finished disposing of the corpses, they were stumped at what to do next, John later to break the monotony said "you know what, if we don't improve those beds, eventually I'm going on that building and jumping off", Daniel was thankful he forgot to mention the Lawson he found, the mention of improving the beds reminded Daniel of a hardware store that is just opposite the road of the convenience store. He told John "You know there's a Hardware store close by, maybe we could find the proper tools and improve these beds and also build some barricades should we actually stay here. So it'll not only help without our boredom" Both him and John had a short laugh at mentioning that, Daniel continued "but it'll also be able to help provide something to secure this compound, well for awhile anyway" they both headed towards the store.

While they made their way towards the store they both noticed a walker in distance just wondering aimlessly, Daniel thought about Ben which propped him to ask John "do you ever feel sorry for them?" John in a slightly confused tone said "no, why do you?" Daniel admitted "I do sometimes, I mean look, they just do things without thinking, looking for their next meal, and if not they just wander aimlessly without a goal and or reason, living like that, it's sad." John then proceeded to say his feelings about them "I honestly can't feel sympathy for any of them they're just mindless killers, in fact what you said just made killing them easier for me. A existence like that, that they'll never get out of makes it sound like I'm doing them a favor, like what I'm doing is mercy killing, everyone of them I put down is another misery ended." Daniel replied "I guess you're right" John in an attempt to make Daniel feel better about killing them said "if it helps think of us as doctor ending a person's pain each time you kill one" Daniel tried to take that to heart.

They arrived at the store, only one shelf blocked their view of everything, so they had little risk of being jumped, they quickly saw the undead inside. The undead also quickly spotted the them as well, The two consisting of a runner and walker went immediately after them, as the runner sprinted Daniel kicked it then whacked it across face and once on ground he beat until it stopped moving. John approached the walker and whacked to into counter, it's face hit the counter and John finished it Daniel then proceed to check the right side of the store with what happened yesterday he knew that the small gap between the shelf and wall was too risky to past though. Soon one more walker emerged from behind shelf and went in between gap, john saw it while checking the boxes laying around on the Wall shelfs, once it got between the shelves, John pulled the shelf on wall down, crushing it's neck between them, to be sure he hit it with his pipe. Later noises could be heard coming from the office door and including morning, rather than take the risk they ignored it then barracked the door with the shelf next to it. With the threat dealt with Daniel stood watch while John scavenged. Once John finished they proceeded back. John managed to find a hammer some wooden boards, nails, screws, bolts and some metal polls. Daniel though that could be enough, once they headed back it was close to night. They decided they'd work on the beds tomorrow and they should start having someone on watch Daniel was on first watch he'd check each side, chance every 10ish minutes then every 30 spend 10 writing his diary, thankfully for the pair the night was uneventful. While Daniel was on watch he couldn't help but feel,oncehe finally thinks the compound is safe he'll be proven wrong in the worst way possible hoping that wouldn't be case. He also was thinking that if John read his diaries why didn't john ask about him seeing the Walkers as murderers back at the convenience store? It contradicted his simplify earlier maybe John was saving it for later but still Daniel wasn't sure why he hadn't brought it up. Daniel was thinking he'd have to tell him why eventually, but couldn't think of when the best time would be, if they even is a best time.


End file.
